The Brummies killed or injured in drink-drive accidents every day – and it’s appalling

Almost three people a day in the West Midlands are injured or killed in a drink-drive road accident.

New data shows an 920 people in our region were hurt in reported road accidents in 2016 where at least one driver or motorcycle rider was over the legal alcohol level.

This represents 5.5 per cent of all of the 16,717 road casualties during the year.

Roughly 20 of the 920 victims were killed, while around 120 were seriously injured.

The figures are rounded to the nearest five to protect anonymity.

The data – published by the Department for Transport today – shows the situation has actually improved slightly since 2015, when 6.0 per cent of all casualties were involved in accidents where a driver or rider was over the limit.

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The Department of Transport estimates that across Great Britain, 9,040 people were killed or injured in drink-drive car accidents in 2016, up from 8,480 in 2015.

This is the highest number since 2012 and represents five per cent of the total 181,384 casualties in reported road accidents in 2016.

Some 230 of the drink-drive victims were killed and 1,250 were seriously injured.

While casualties in drink-drive accidents make up 6.1 of total casualties in Wales, in Scotland the figure is 5.3 per cent and in England 4.9 per cent.

Within the English regions, the casualty rates varies from 6.2 per cent in the South West to 2.2 per cent in Greater London. The rate for Greater London is less than half that of any other region.

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Joshua Harris, director of campaigns at road safety charity Brake, said: “How many more lives must be needlessly lost before the government acts on drink-driving?

“Today’s figures show that drink-driving is an increasing blight on British roads and yet the government sits on its hands and refuses to address the issue.

“The government should put its money where its mouth is and align the law with the message from its ‘Think!’ campaign: “if you’re driving, it’s better to have none for the road”.

“Only this zero-tolerance approach can create the change required to rid our roads of the menace of drink-driving.”